by Jessie Cooke
“What, Mace? Go ahead and finish that thought. He wouldn’t have told me about the baby?”
“I never meant for you to find out that way.”
“You never meant for me to find out period.”
“Please, Cody, not now. We talked about it already. I can’t do this right now. That’s in the past. What’s important right now is that Jimmy’s okay.” She reached up and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. Cody hated that he was jealous of her sympathy for Jimmy. It wasn’t that he didn’t care. He did, and he hated that he might have played any part in his old friend’s accident at all. Sure, he was pissed at Jimmy for not coming to see him and for stealing his girl, but he didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. He looked back at them. Macy had slipped her hand into Jimmy’s and she was staring at his face again. Cody wasn’t heartless, but he was human and this was killing him. Imagining them together was one thing, seeing it was too much.
“You’re right. He’s what’s important right now. You stay with him. Dax left me a phone this morning. I’ll leave you the number and you can call me if there’s anything you need or any changes.”
“Call you?” she asked. “Where are you going? How can you just leave?” Cody’s emotions were going crazy. One second he wanted to comfort her and the next he wanted to choke her. If she expected him to hang around while she and Jimmy built a life together when Jimmy got out of the hospital, she had another thing coming as well. Chances were that he’d be becoming a prospect with Cen Cal, and soon.
“He doesn’t want me here, Macy. He doesn’t consider us friends any longer and to be honest, maybe he’s right. It’s been eight years since we’ve seen each other or talked.” He looked at Jimmy’s bruised and swollen face and said, “Maybe we’ve just grown too far apart.”
She didn’t say anything, but she looked like she disagreed. Cody didn’t care what she thought at that moment. He needed to get out of there. He felt like he couldn’t breathe any longer. “Call if you need anything, okay?” She didn’t take her eyes off Jimmy, but she nodded. Cody waited a few beats to see if she’d look up at him. When she didn’t, he wrote his number on the little whiteboard on the wall and then after giving her shoulder a squeeze, he left. He wasn’t sure where he was headed until the minute the taxi dropped him off at the ranch. This was as good a time as any to take care of unfinished business. Dax was out of town; maybe he could get it handled before he got back.
Cody pulled into the parking lot of a diner a few hours later. It was a hole-in-the-wall in one of the worst areas of Boston. As he slid off the bike he saw a group of teenagers smoking weed a few feet away, watching him. Dax had not only left him with a phone when he dropped him at the hospital, he’d given him three hundred-dollar bills. Cody slipped one out of his pocket and gestured at one of the kids. The kid had long, greasy hair and a bad case of acne. He looked at Cody suspiciously, but the hundred in the big man’s fist drew him in like a magnet.
“What’s up?” the kid asked.
“I’m going to be in this diner for less than an hour. You watch my bike and make sure no one gets anywhere near it and this bill is yours.” The kid looked at the bike and back at the money in Cody’s hand. Finally, he nodded and reached for the bill. “Huh-uh!” Cody drew it back. “You get the money when I get back…if the bike’s in one piece. If it’s been stripped for parts, me and the rest of my club…a bunch of motherfuckers who make me look as innocent as a ten-year-old girl…will find you. Okay?” The kid swallowed hard and nodded. Cody left him there in charge of the bike and went inside. Stitch stuck out like a sore thumb, sitting in a booth near the front window. His long hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he had a dark green skullcap on with black writing that said “Irish Mayhem” all over it. He’d had a beard and mustache when Cody met him the day before. Now he was clean-shaven, and a deep, ugly scar that looked like a cut that had been stitched up by Dr. Frankenstein ran from underneath his right eye all the way down to the corner of his mouth. Cody wondered what Stitch had done to be rewarded with that; at least he knew now where the guy got his name.
“Hey, kid, you made it.”
“Sorry, there was a lot of traffic. I don’t have a license yet and I’m not supposed to be out of the county. Don’t want to get popped.” He slipped into the booth and the waitress, an older lady with pantyhose as saggy as the skin underneath her eyes, came over with the coffeepot. Cody turned his cup over and she filled it.
“You want a menu, hon?”
“No, I’m good, thanks.” Once she was gone Stitch said:
“So…this is about O’Toole, I guess?”
Cody nodded and took a sip of the black coffee. He was exhausted. He hadn’t slept more than an hour all night, and the stress of finding out about Macy and the baby and Jimmy’s accident was all wearing on him. “I want that son of a bitch,” he told Stitch. “I can’t stop thinking about it, and I’m not going to be able to get on with my life knowing that he’s going on with his like nothing happened.”
“Understandable. If it was my brother, I’d feel the same. I’m still a little curious about why you can’t go to your president with this.”
“Like I told you before, Dax has other things going on right now. He’s working on re-organizing the club and as far as our relationship goes…well, it’s complicated.”
“You’re not wearing a patch. Why aren’t you a prospect yet?”
Cody was getting annoyed. He didn’t understand why Stitch gave a shit about his relationship with Dax or the club. He sighed and said, “After my father disappeared, Dax took me in and treated me like I was…his son, I guess. He wasn’t old enough to be my father, but that’s how he’s always treated me. He doesn’t think of me as just another kid that wants to be a prospect. I think, honestly, he’d prefer if I didn’t. We haven’t had a lot of time since I got out to talk about it. He’s been busy with whatever this is that he’s working on with your club and I’ve been busy…just readjusting. So, I haven’t mentioned O’Toole to him and I’d rather not, to be honest.”
Stitch sipped his coffee and listened. When Cody was finished, he said, “That makes more sense, then. You have to understand that I have to be cautious here myself…”
“Let’s be straight with each other, Stitch. There’s something you want out of this. I may be young, and inexperienced, but I’m not stupid. Since you know I just got out and I don’t have any money, there has to be something else. So, why don’t you tell me what you’ll want as payment for helping me get to O’Toole, and I’ll tell you if I can afford it.”
Stitch laughed. “I like you, kid.” Cody didn’t say anything and Stitch went on, “You’re right. Tit for tat, as they say. I think you can afford my terms. I want a meet with one of the Cen Cal Commies.”
“The only one I know is Brew and he’s back out in Cali. I don’t think he has much pull with them.”
“He has pull with one of them. I want to meet Brew Senior. He goes by the name of Scalper. I want a face-to-face with him—just him, alone. Him and his boy are close. If Brew asks him to do it, he will. Once that happens, you get a face-to-face with my uncle, Johnny O’Toole, not surrounded by bodyguards.”
Cody was more than a little suspicious, but at the same time, it was a tempting offer. “Why do you want to meet Brew’s dad? As far as I know he’s just a sergeant at arms.”
“I got some old business with him and I’d like to turn it into new business. Oh, and there’s one other part of the deal.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, I’m guessing you’d rather that my uncle didn’t see you coming.”
“Yeah, I’d rather not walk in on an ambush.”
“I can make that happen…but I want the same in return. Scalper can’t have any idea it’s me he’ll be meeting up with ahead of time. I’m going to savor the look of surprise on the motherfucker’s face when a dead man walks in and takes a seat.” He laughed again. Cody wasn’t laughing. He wasn’t even smiling. Stitch was offerin
g him Johnny O’Toole on a silver platter…but at what cost? Fuck.
“What are you doing here?” Macy was half asleep when she heard Jimmy’s voice and at first she thought she’d imagined it. “Hey, Macy!” She opened her eyes that time to the weak, raspy voice. His eyes were only half opened and he was looking at her through slitted lids.
She sat up and wiped the sleep out of her eyes. “Hey! You’re awake.”
“What are you doing here, Mace?”
“You were in an accident…”
“Yeah. I know. I’m gonna live—too bad for you and Cody, huh?”
“Jimmy, please don’t be this way. Cody was here. He’s worried about you too…”
“I don’t care, Macy. I don’t want the two of you rushing around acting like the best friend and the girlfriend. Cody and I haven’t been best friends for eight years and you stopped being my girlfriend the night you decided to fuck him at Spirits like a common whore.”
Macy stood up. “You know this isn’t an ordinary situation. Yes, I made a mistake by being with Cody…but it wasn’t planned, it just…”
“Unless he slipped in the bathroom and his dick fell into your pussy, I don’t want to hear that it ‘just happened,’ Macy, or that it wasn’t planned, or whatever the fuck. I don’t give a shit. You fucked him, and you’ll do it again and I’ll look like the fucking fool. None of the other guys have girlfriends or old ladies that would even dare think about fucking anyone else. I’m going places with this club and your bullshit is not stopping me. And I have no idea what those fucking tears in your eyes are about. I was never the one you wanted. I was the one that was available. As soon as I saw you look at him in the bar that first day, I knew we were over. I should have ended it before you had the chance to make Dax think I was a weak son of a bitch that can’t control my woman.”
“Is that all this means to you, what Dax and the others think about it?”
“What Dax and the others think of me is all I have, obviously. I thought I had you too—I was wrong. Now, get the fuck out of here and quit pretending you give a shit. I’m done.”
Macy opened her mouth to say something else but decided against it. One thing Jimmy said that was true, and she hadn’t even realized it until Cody was back, was that it would always be Cody in her heart. Whether her head or her heart won out remained to be seen.
16
It was one week from the day that Cody had met with Stitch, and he woke up with his chest and stomach filled with anxiety. He had called his friend Brew in California and lied out his ass about wanting to talk about becoming a prospect for them. He invited him and his father out, using the excuse that his PO was still watching him pretty closely and he wouldn’t be able to be gone long enough to get out to Cali and back without making her suspicious. Brew had been up for it and he was going to talk to his dad. Today was the day Cody would try and manipulate Dax into letting them stay on the ranch. He knew the Irish Mayhem were visiting again the upcoming weekend, and it would be his chance to get Stitch and Scalper together.
He got dressed and went down to the kitchen in search of coffee. What he found was Macy and Tank making breakfast. It was the first time he’d seen her since the day he left the hospital. Jimmy had come home the next day and Cody just assumed she was taking care of him. She looked up when he walked in and looked sick. That look was becoming less than flattering.
“Hey. Just grabbing some coffee,” he said.
Tank said, “Macy and I have been finishing a pot a morning since she moved back home, but it was my day to cook today.” Cody looked at them. Tank was smiling and Macy rolled her eyes. Tank obviously wanted him to know she wasn’t living with Jimmy. Macy just as obviously didn’t want him to know or she wouldn’t have let a week go by without telling him. “I’m gonna go find Angel and give her my grocery list. You two kids should take advantage of the quiet and talk.” He got another look from Macy. Cody smiled at him. He couldn’t help it. The old man was less than subtle. As soon as he was gone, Macy stood up to leave.
“You don’t have to go,” Cody said, “I’m leaving.” She just nodded and he asked, “How’s Jimmy? I haven’t seen him at the clubhouse.”
“I don’t know much. Some of the club girls are taking care of him.” If Cody knew club life like he thought he did, without Macy around they were likely taking care of him in more ways than one. “I heard he was doing okay.”
“That’s good. So, you’re staying with your dad?”
“Yeah. It’s for the best.”
“What does this mean for us?”
“Us? Cody, there is no us.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“What are you talking about? We’ve done nothing but say ugly things to each other since you’ve been back.”
“We have eight years of shit to work through. I’m sure there’s a lot more ugly to come. But the bottom line is that I still don’t want anyone else and I’m pretty sure you don’t either.”
“I’m not sure how you know what I want, Cody. I don’t even know myself.”
He took a sip of his coffee and started for the door as he said, “Alright. When you figure it out, you know where to find me.”
“Cody, what about…what about the abortion?”
He turned around to look at her. Those pretty eyes were filled with tears again. He knew that she hadn’t gone through with that abortion lightly. He knew her well enough to know that eight years later she was probably still tortured by it. He’d just been so pissed off that she hadn’t talked to him about it. “It’s done, Macy, just like what I did is done too. I didn’t talk to you about what I intended to do that night because I was afraid you’d try to talk me out of it. I don’t doubt you felt the same way. You were the one that was going to be left behind with a kid, not me.”
“It honestly wasn’t that I didn’t consider you, Cody. You just had so much going on. Your life was falling apart and your freedom was taken away from you and you couldn’t help me…I knew that would be the worst part for you. Even when we were little kids, you always wanted to fix things and make them better for me. Remember how many nights we spent camped out under the stars because I couldn’t stand being in that house with Dad and one of his whores? Even after Dax brought you here and you had a clean, comfortable place to go at night, you’d sleep on the dirt, in the cold, to get me out of that house. You listened to me talk about my mother and you never judged her. You never judged Jimmy the way the other kids did because of what his mother did. You were a wild one, Cody Miller, but you always had a good heart. So yes, I had the abortion because I couldn’t imagine bringing a child into this mess. But the reason I didn’t talk to you about it was because I didn’t want you to have to sit in a cell for fifteen years thinking about the kid and the life you never had and not being able to do a damned thing about it.”
It still hurt, to think he could have had a kid. It was funny how family meant so much to a guy who came from shit. “I’m sorry you had to go through all that alone, Macy.” Cody was beginning to realize…albeit slowly…that his actions did affect other people, often in negative ways.
“Thank you for saying that. I’m sorry you had to find out the way you did.” He nodded and started to go again and she said, “You’re not sticking around for breakfast? Dad made homemade biscuits.”
“I’ll be back. I have to find Dax.”
“He was out in the shop earlier. Tool was doing some work on Angel’s car, I think.”
“Okay, thanks.” He smiled at her. “I don’t know where all this shit is going to lead us, Macy…but I missed the hell out of having you in my life for the past eight years.”
“I missed you too, Cody.”
He could feel her watching him as he left. He was feeling good right up until he saw Dax’s face. For a few seconds, he wasn’t sure that he could go through with it…lying to him. What Jimmy said about how much he owed Dax was in the forefront of Cody’s mind. He was trying to tell himself that as long as it wasn’t hurting
anyone, it didn’t matter…but in all honesty, he had no clue what Stitch intended to do. He was a wild card, but the only card Cody was holding that would get him where he needed to be…in a room, alone, with Johnny O’Toole.
He took a deep breath, pasted on a smile, and walked over to where Dax and Tool were looking under the hood of Angel’s car. “Hey, Dax, Tool.”
“Hey, kid. Did you get your license in the mail yet?” Dax had taken him to the DMV, and he’d passed both his written and driving tests and been given a temporary license. Dax had seen him at the mailboxes the day before and was having fun teasing him.
“Not yet,” he said with a grin. “I was kind of wondering if I could ask you a favor.”
Dax put down the wrench he was holding and looked at Tool. “You need to talk privately, kid?” Tool asked.
“Nah, I have this friend who’s going to be in town over the weekend. His father’s coming with him. I was just wondering if they could stay a couple nights here on the ranch.”
Dax raised an eyebrow. “A friend?”
“Yeah, remember the guy I told you about, my old cellie?”
Dax raised both eyebrows. “The Cen Cal Commie?”
“Yeah, Brewster is his name, they call him Brew. He’s a good guy, Dax. I think you’d like him.”
“What are they doing in town?”
“I didn’t ask for specifics. I just know they’re handling some business.”
“What kind of business do they have on the east coast?”
Cody shrugged. “I didn’t get nosy,” he said. Dax would believe that, because as curious as Cody was about the Skulls’ business, he never got nosy about that either.
“I can’t say that’s okay without talking to Liam. I don’t know if the two clubs have any history, and I don’t want a war on my ranch.”
“Sure.” Cody also knew Dax would say that. Stitch assured him that Liam had no history and no problems with the Commies. The business between Stitch and Scalper was personal and older than his affiliation with the Irish Mayhem.
